All About Us
by Jedite'sFlame
Summary: This takes place right after the end of Eldest. Eragon confronts Roran.


All About Us

Disclaimer: I own nothing in here. Sad, yes, but true. The song in here is "All About Us" by TaTu

Eragon was completely ignored as he wandered between the rows of tents the Varden had set up opposite of Galbatorix's army. They had won the battle that day, but Eragon's heart was heavy as he contemplated how to deal with the sudden appearance of his cousin, Roran. To see his cousin alive after all that had happened was a relief, to say the least, though Roran was hardly glad to see Eragon.

_He blames me for Garrow's death, Saphira. What can I do to convince him it wasn't my fault?_

_Maybe you should tell him about what really happened. Then he would not have a reason to harbor such hatred. _Saphira advised Eragon as she walked beside him.

_I doubt he'd believe me._ Eragon remarked as he settled down against his tent, food in hand.

_Try, little one._ With that, Saphira unfurled her wings and took off in search of her own food, leaving Eragon alone with his thoughts. He sighed and sat back, staring up at the sky, looking for any way to solve the situation at hand.

He looked around him and saw that almost all of the people from Carvahall sat far away from him, sending him wary glances. _They all blame me for their plight._

They say  
They don't trust  
You, me, we, us  
So we'll fall  
If we must  
Cause it's you, me  
And it's all about  
It's all about…

He reached up to gingerly rub the sore spot on his chin from the punch Roran had given him earlier that day. _Maybe Saphira is right. Maybe I should go tell him what really happened._ Before he could stand up, however, Roran, Horst, and Elaine sat around him in a half-circle with their own food. The looks sent to him by Horst and Elaine were sympathetic and forgiving, whereas the look on Roran's hard face was bitter. _I can't do this, Saphira._

_Try._

Eragon racked his brain for an idea of how to begin as the silence in the little group grew longer and longer. "I know you think everything that has happened is my fault," Eragon said quietly, "but believe my when I say that this isn't what I wanted to happen."

"Oh, really? So you did indeed want something to happen to us?" Roran's biting reply caused Eragon to clamp his mouth shut in frustration. How was he to explain everything that happened when Roran wasn't willing to listen to the truth?

"That's not what I meant. I was merely say—"

"Admit it: when you left Carvahall you knew something terrible would occur, didn't you? That's why you ran!"

"No! Roran, listen to me! You weren't there; you don't know all that was taking place. Not even Elaine and Horst (who were there) know everything."

Silence reigned in the little group until it was broken a few minutes later by Elaine's quiet voice. "What _did_ happen, Eragon?"

Eragon looked down, his heart beating faster. Now was the time he set the record straight, but the thought terrified him. No one in the Varden camp knew anything about his past. Sure, he had given an account of it to Ajihad, Arya, and Islanzadi, but never in detail, as the people around him wanted. Memories flashed through in front on his mind's eye as he saw everything that had happened play as a movie through his mind. And with the memories came pain. The pain of losing a loved one; a pain he had suppressed since Garrow died.

As he was gathering his thoughts, Jeod also sat down in their little group, throwing Eragon an encouraging smile, though it went unseen as Eragon's eyes became focused once again on his plate in front of him. _Where to begin?_

It's all about us (all about us)  
It's all about  
All about us (all about us)  
There's a thing that they can't touch  
'Cause ya know (ah ah)  
It's all about us (all about us)  
It's all about  
All about us  
all about us  
We'll run away if we must  
'Cause ya know  
It's all about us (It's all about us)  
It's all about love (It's all about us)  
In you I can trust (It's all about us)  
It's all about us…

"You know of the stone I found in the Spine, right?" At this, each person nodded. "And I'm sure Jeod has also told you that it wasn't really a stone; but an egg." Again, heads nodded. "Okay, then. Here goes…" Eragon told them everything he could remember about finding the egg, what happened to him in town the day Roran left and he encountered the Ra'zac for the first time, finding his uncle burned and buried underneath the rubble from their house, and finally to overhearing Horst and Elaine talking in their kitchen about how he hadn't told them the whole truth about what happened. He also added in some facts he learned since leaving, such as why the egg was sent to Carvahall, how it was sent, and why the burns on Garrow's body refused to heal as fast as normal burns would…

When he finished his narration, each person was lost in his or her own thoughts and dared not break the silence.

"You couldn't at least bury him before you left?" Roran whispered.

Pain filled Eragon's eyes once again before he answered. "I wanted to, Roran, but I had to leave as soon as physically possible."

"Why did you have to? I still don't see it."

Eragon sighed as he shifted in his seat. "I told you; Horst and all the other men in town were getting very suspicious of the footprints around our farm. And now you know they were Saphira's, but I had a feeling that they were going to go off and hunt her down."

"Would that honestly have been so bad?" Roran shouted as he banged his fist against his thigh. "None of this would have happened if it hadn't been for her!"

"You're right. None of this would have happened if she hadn't hatched for me. Garrow would most likely still be alive, yes. Brom would have been dead either way; the Ra'zac were looking for him to begin with, the elves would have been destroyed because Arya would have been sent to Uru'baen to face Galbatorix and wouldn't have had a chance at withholding the elves' location. The battle at Farthen Dur would have been lost, thereby making the Varden all but extinct. And today's battle would never have occurred. And yet, because Saphira chose me as her Rider, all these things turned out the way they should have."

If they hurt you  
They hurt me too  
So we'll rise up  
Won't stop  
And it's all about  
It's all about  
It's all about us (all about us)  
It's all about  
All about us (all about us)  
There's a thing that they can't touch  
'Cause ya know (ah ah)  
It's all about us (all about us)  
It's all about  
All about us  
all about us  
We'll run away if we must  
'Cause ya know  
It's all about us (It's all about us)  
It's all about love (It's all about us)  
In you I can trust (It's all about us)  
It's all about us…

"Believe me, Roran; I never wanted Garrow to die. He was the only father I've ever known…But I wouldn't trade anything that's happened to have him back. I know that sounds harsh, but trust me when I say it's for the best that he's gone." Eragon turned and set his uneaten plate of food on the ground by his side. Tears were threatening to spill as he remembered the feeling right after finding his uncle dead. Until then he never noticed that part of him had died with his uncle. Now it was blatantly obvious, and he wondered if the others could tell or if they had already known.

"You don't know the Hell you've put the entire town through because of your secrets, Eragon." Roran whispered harshly.

"Roran! You don't mean that!" Elaine exclaimed from Horst's side.

"I do! Admit it, Elaine; it has been Hell since he left so suddenly. A Hell he knows nothing of!"

"And you have no idea how many Hells I've been through since leaving! One after the other, they never seem to end! I know what you've been through, Roran, and believe me when I say I truly am sorry to put you through all these hardships. You also have to believe that leaving was the hardest thing I had had to do, but had I not, all of us would be dead. I left to protect you all."

Roran's response to this was a snort, but it was Horst who spoke first. "How did your leaving protect us?"

"Because I knew that if I could keep Galbatorix guessing which side I was on, he wouldn't dare try to harm any of you for fear of making me his enemy. Keep in mind that Saphira was once one of the eggs in the palace and had been stolen from him. His goal was to have the three eggs to hatch and have their Riders be on his side. When Saphira was stolen, he feared a Rider would rise up against him; unless he could get to the Rider before he got too powerful. However, I fear the fight in Farthen Dur and Nasuada's spreading my name as the Rider of the Varden were the leading factors as to why he decided to try and capture you, Roran. He finally knew which side I was on."

"You have to give him some credit, though, Roran. He kept Galbatorix away from us for almost a year." Horst put in. "We've only been running from the Ra'zac for a couple months; Eragon's been running from them since he left, and he hasn't been caught. That's a feat indeed!"

Eragon laughed. "That's not entirely true. I've been in their clutches too many times. I've even been thrown in prison in Gil'ead. Granted, that one was due to Urgals, but all the same, I was in Galbatorix's reach."

"You were imprisoned in Gil'ead? How did you manage to escape?" Elaine questioned, running one hand over her swollen belly.

"A bit of fasting, magic, a good friend, and a dragon who lives as much inside my head as her own." Eragon chuckled a bit at that thought.

"Wait, what do you mean she lives inside your head?" Horst asked, looking at Eragon as if he had lost his mind. At that moment, Jeod burst out laughing. "I'm sorry, Eragon, but they remind me of you when you first arrived in Tierm. You knew almost nothing about being a dragon, and it's apparent that they know nothing of the bond between dragon and Rider."

"Bond?" Horst asked again, growing more confused as the minutes went by.

Eragon shot Jeod an amused grin before explaining. "Dragons and Riders share thoughts and feelings. It's how the dragon communicates with people. They can share completely private conversations inside their heads. The longer the bond exists between the Rider and Dragon, the more their minds merge. At the moment, Saphira and I can listen and learn things the other is being told or taught. When I was in Ellesmera, this was a stressed importance. We were often quizzed on what the other one had learned before we were allowed to leave." Eragon laughed a bit at the memory. "I'm positive disaster would have struck more than once if I didn't have Saphira to constantly guide me with her wisdom."

They don't know  
They can't see  
Who we are  
Fear is the enemy  
Hold on tight  
Hold on to me  
'Cause tonight  
It's all about us  
It's all about  
All about us  
There's a thing that they can't touch  
'Cause ya know (ah ah)  
It's all about us (all about us)…

_Aw, that's sweet of you to say, Eragon. But disaster did strike a few times even with me "constantly guiding you with my wisdom." _Eragon heard Saphira chuckle a bit and throw some images into his mind of the times when he had gotten into many scrapes because he didn't heed her word.

_Thank you for those reminders. _ Eragon grumbled to himself about dragons and their crazy memories. This caused Roran, Horst, and Elaine to give him worried looks, and only an amused one from Jeod. _Are you on your way back?_

_I am about to land as we speak. Why?_

_Just curious. You've been gone a while and I don't like it when you're not nearby._

_I don't like it either, little one. I was just giving you time to talk to them without me near. Humans tend to get frightened when I'm around._ Saphira mused wryly, causing Eragon to actually laugh out loud, earning him more worried looks from those around him.

"I think he's going crazy, Roran." Horst stage-whispered to Roran from behind his hand. "He's laughing at nothing." To Jeod he asked, "Is this normal?"

"Perfectly. It's the bond; he's probably talking to Saphira."

"Probably?" Elaine asked, looking from Eragon to Jeod with an even more worried expression.

"It's either Saphira or someone else who will let Eragon into their head for a conversation. Saves time from having to find someone else. Though it isn't widely used due to the fact that it's an invasion of privacy to a point." Jeod replied, enjoying the role of teacher for the moment.

"For your information, I was talking to Saphira." Eragon stated as Saphira began her descent, dust billowing into a cloud with each stroke of her powerful wings. When she landed, she settled her massive body comfortably next to Eragon's and surveyed the small group before her. _I take it that they still don't know how to deal with you being a Rider. It's strange for them._

_It was strange for me, too, don't you remember? You have to keep in mind that Carvahall is cut off from most of the other cities in the Empire. All they've ever heard about Dragon Riders comes from stories told to them by Brom and the traders that come through every year._

_Humans are strange. _ Saphira commented, looking long and hard at Roran, who began to squirm under her scrutiny. Eragon merely smiled and agreed. _Humans are indeed strange._

It's all about us (all about us)  
It's all about  
All about us (all about us)  
There's a thing that they can't touch  
'Cause ya know (ah ah)  
It's all about us (all about us)  
All about us  
It's all about us (all about us)  
It's all about  
All about us (all about us)  
There's a thing that they can't touch  
'Cause ya know (ah ah)  
It's all about us (all about us)  
It's all about us (all about us)It's all about  
All about us (all about us)  
We'll run away if we must  
'Cause ya know (ah ah)  
It's all about us (all about us)  
It's all about  
All about us (all about us)  
We'll run away if we must  
'Cause ya know (ah ah)  
It's all about us (all about us)

It's all about us (It's all about us)  
It's all about love (It's all about us)  
In you I can trust (It's all about us)

It's all about us


End file.
